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I have a 2002 745i with Sprint CPT8000 phone which I had used for the past year. I recently disconnected service on the phone because I wanted to switch it over to an add-on phone on another Sprint plan. I tried to get the CPT8000 activated via the phone; after several unsuccessful tries, I was told to take it to a Sprint store. I did this, and in usual rock-bottom absolute-worst customer service for which Sprint is known, I was told they didn't have the necessary cable for the needed upgrade, "No, there are none of these cables in Kansas City", "No, we won't call around to find one of these cables elsewhere" and, essentially, "Tough luck, dude, but we can give you a $100 discount on a new completely incompatible Sprint phone." Whoopee!

Any ideas on what can be done? Or is my ridiculously expensive BMW phone system now worthless?

Must agree, Sprint is, bar none, the world's worst!
Having that been said, suggest you try contacting Motorola. I've had much success with Motorola when neither BMW and/or their approved wireless carrier's came close to understanding issues, much less, resolving them.

I have a 2002 745i with Sprint CPT8000 phone which I had used for the past year. I recently disconnected service on the phone because I wanted to switch it over to an add-on phone on another Sprint plan. I tried to get the CPT8000 activated via the phone; after several unsuccessful tries, I was told to take it to a Sprint store. I did this, and in usual rock-bottom absolute-worst customer service for which Sprint is known, I was told they didn't have the necessary cable for the needed upgrade, "No, there are none of these cables in Kansas City", "No, we won't call around to find one of these cables elsewhere" and, essentially, "Tough luck, dude, but we can give you a $100 discount on a new completely incompatible Sprint phone." Whoopee!

They shouldn't need a cable to activate the CPT8000. The CPT8000 manual says that Sprint PCS activations of the CPT8000 are handled by calling 1-866-PCS-AUTO. That number still works, and I think you want Option 2 once you get there.

The important thing to tell them is that this is a Sprint PCS phone that came with your car. Carriers tend to not want to activate phones they didn't sell.

Thank you for the responses....so far, I haven't had much luck but I think I'm making progress.

Regarding not needing a cable, apparently it's a firmware upgrade that's needed and that can't be done via the phone.

I did call Motorola and they gave me a few local Motorola service center addresses, so my next plan is to take the phone there. Otherwise, I can send it to Motorola for $75 or so.

I had my car in for service last week and I mentioned it to my dealership (whose service is generally excellent)....they said they can't do anything about it because it's up to the carrier to upgrade the phone. My response was that the phone was purchased from BMW and unless it's specifically excluded from the warranty, I would think that BMW would bear some responsibility for this while the car is under warranty--the phone is completely unuseable as it it except maybe for emergency dialing (I'm not even sure about that). They're supposed to follow up on this.

My greatest sadness it that even after all of this aggravation, if, by some chance, I am able to get the phone programmed, I'll still be stuck with Sprint PCS.

Regarding not needing a cable, apparently it's a firmware upgrade that's needed and that can't be done via the phone.

Why do they think they need to update the firmware? Remember that the CPT8000's use special firmware to talk to the car, and if anyone updates it, it will turn into a generic Timeport P8767 which won't work in your car.

Quote:

My response was that the phone was purchased from BMW and unless it's specifically excluded from the warranty, I would think that BMW would bear some responsibility for this while the car is under warranty--the phone is completely unuseable as it it except maybe for emergency dialing (I'm not even sure about that). They're supposed to follow up on this.

If it was written on the original car sales invoice, it is covered by the BMW new car warranty. Your dealer may not understand this, or they may not want to deal w/ Motorola. Since it is out-of-warranty with Motorola and the phone hasn't been manufactured in ages (they were obsolete when BMW was selling them), Motorola's service wants a $100 prepayment from the dealer to look at the phone, and they might go "sorry" and say they can't fix it.